Reports highlight role of wind and geothermal in energy transition

A series of expert reports investigating New Zealand’s future electricity generation have been commissioned to update this information.

“We welcome the reports from leading groups of experts in their field,” says Daniel Griffiths, MBIE Manager of Markets, Evidence and Insights.

“These first 2 reports confirm New Zealand has plentiful wind resource for future electricity generation. Geothermal electricity generation will also play a role in the transition, with the potential for the current capacity to double by 2060.

“Wind was identified as the most significant source of new electricity generation capacity in modelling undertaken by the Ministry in 2019 in its Electricity Demand and Generation Scenarios. While we updated our generation costs for that work, we wanted to confirm that the international trends we observed translated well to New Zealand conditions.”

Additional reports into other generation types will be released later this year.